


Air Force Barbie

by schmevil



Category: Avengers (Comic), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alcohol, Friendship, Gen, POV Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-15
Updated: 2011-10-15
Packaged: 2017-10-24 15:55:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/265308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schmevil/pseuds/schmevil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After twenty minutes of Happy’s stunt driving, and far too much time wasted trying to beat Tony at his own game, Pepper was in no mood for her boss’s usual antics. Especially antics involving absurdly fit, leggy blondes in tight shorts, and artfully draped USAF t-shirts. No matter how much he paid her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Air Force Barbie

**Author's Note:**

> This is a self-indulgent attempt to introduce Carol Danvers to the movieverse. I wrote it last year and forgot about it, but lately I've been considering a sequel, so here it is.

She’d been hunting down Tony for twenty minutes. From the office, where he was supposed to be - she should have known better - to the house, where Jarvis was only partially functional. Halfway through a deep self-diagnostic that sounded, to her tech-not-immensely-savvy ears like an excuse for quiet time. Or maybe it was just the way Jarvis said he couldn’t help her find Tony ("maintenance and security functions are currently available") not quite apologetic, and matter of fact.

As wonderful as Jarvis was, he was still Tony’s creation, whose influence, good and bad, was literally code-deep.

After the electronic run around, came the drive. It did not improve her mood.

It should have taken longer than twenty minutes to get from the office to the house, and if Happy hadn’t been driving, she would have spent at least an hour inching through LA traffic. But after all those years of chasing after his boss, Happy had learned to maneuver the always crowded LA streets like a New York cabbie. Pepper kept her eyes closed the whole drive, pretending to check her Blackberry.

Finding Happy still hanging around at SI, even after Tony had disappeared, was, quite possibly divine intervention. She was, at that point, about three seconds away from launching her Blackberry down the hallway.

So after twenty minutes of Happy’s stunt driving, and far too much time wasted trying to beat Tony at his own game, Pepper was in no mood for her boss’s usual antics. Especially antics involving absurdly fit, leggy blondes in tight shorts, and artfully draped USAF t-shirts. No matter how much he paid her.

She found them on the terrace: Rhodey sprawled out on a lounger, tumbler of whiskey in hand, watching Tony and a new girl - who Pepper immediately noted wasn’t quite as _Hollywood_ as Tony’s usual taste - drive golf-balls into the ocean.

The blonde girl - woman, really - stepped up for her turn, moving like a born athlete. She stared out at the waves, her face blank of any emotion. If Pepper wanted to be uncharitable, she'd say stupid. If she wanted to be charitable (but was she in the mood?), she'd say penetrating. The blond woman bent, looked up briefly and then swung, sending her ball, far into the ocean. So far that Pepper couldn’t see where it finally touched the waves.

Then - had Pepper made a sound? She didn't remember - the woman turned to her. For a second, a long second, she looked at Pepper with that same blank stare. Then she smiled brightly, put down her club, and headed for Pepper with her hand out.

"You must be Pepper."

"I must be."

"Rhodey and Tony told me about you."

Oh really, she thought.

"I'm Carol Danvers. I work up at the Cape." Her grip was firm, her hand lightly callused. USAF t-shirt and she worked at the Cape.

"You work with Rhodey," she guessed.

Carol grinned. "Sometimes. I'm chief of security."

"And one of the finest pilots this side of Tatooine," Tony said, raising his glass.

"I'll drink to that," Carol said, snagging her beer from the little table beside Rhodey that was littered with empty bottles and glasses. "Slainte," she said, raising her bottle in a toast that Rhodey and Tony immediately echoed.

"We're running out," Tony said, mournfully assessing the nearly empty bottle of whiskey. "Pepper, get us another bottle?"

Some strangled noise came out of her then. Pepper wasn't sure if she'd meant it to be actual words. She stifled it quickly, pushing it down, along with the blind rage that threatened to take her over, straightened her shoulders and said, "You missed your three-o-clock with Narada."

"Right," he said, drawing the word out almost too long. "Tell him we'll reschedule."

Carol laughed then, had obviously been listening in. "You blew off Ahsan Narada to drive golf balls off your terrace?"

"The company was inspiring," Tony said, not selling it as much as he could have. He said it lightly, like he didn't expect it to mean anything to Carol.

"Not as inspiring as a multi-billion contract."

Tony turned a scandalized look on Rhodey. "You teaming up on me?"

"Nah," he said. "You'd probably enjoy that." Carol burst into surprised laughter.

"Tony," Pepper said insistently. With Rhodey and Carol waving him off, it was easy to lead him inside. Everything about the scene was easy, comfortable, with Tony relaxed and unaffected. Pepper felt... outside of things for once, like she was missing something.

She herded Tony through the call with Narada. He was charming without being overly charming, or arrogantly grating. Subdued, by his usual standards. It was a miracle. If all it took to keep Tony from offending major defense players was a little terrace golf with Rhodey and Air Force Barbie... ok Pepper, now _that_ was uncharitable.

Call over, Tony headed straight to the liquor cabinet, fishing out a fresh bottle. He swayed a bit, standing up.

"Are you drunk?"

"Not yet," he said matter of factly. "But Rhodey is feeling no pain. Carol... Carol drinks like the good Boston Irish girl that she is."

"She's Air Force?"

"Used to be. Now she's a spook. The CIA thinks that's a secret, so don't let on that you know." Tony winked.

"The CIA is spying on NASA?"

"The CIA spies on everyone." Pepper frowned. "So what is she doing here?"

She nodded. "You don't like spies."

"No I don't, but Danvers is an old... acquaintance," he said slowly, as if trying out the word to see if it fit. "And she's not here to spy on me." Not here to spy on the house, Pepper hoped. Tony could more than take care of himself, and Jarvis likewise, but that didn't stop her from worrying.

"Where do you know her from?"

"I almost got her killed. She's nice enough not to hold a grudge," he said evenly. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to polish off this fine bottle of Glenfiddich, and commit acts of unspeakable inhumanity on the local sea life." He smiled quickly and was heading out to the terrace, before Pepper could think of a response, quippy or otherwise.

Pepper loitered in the office, putting papers in order, syncing large sections of her Blackberry calendar with Tony's. There wasn't a better word for it than loitering. Strictly speaking, she didn't have anything pressing to do in the home office. After the treasure hunt from hell that had been tracking down Tony, and readying herself to browbeat and/or bribe him into playing CEO for a few minutes, she hadn't been prepared for him to fold so quickly. Or to meet Rhodey and Tony's old friend, NASA security chief, spook, former pilot, and all around blond bombshell.

Were the CIA interested in Tony? That was a given. Tony had never willingly, knowingly invited a field agent into his home.

Outside, the three of them were still at it, with varying degrees of sobriety. Rhodey was sitting up, making no move to use the club he held loosely at his side. Tony was still hitting his balls, if only just. Carol-- Danvers was still driving them straight and far into the surf. Boston Irish, Tony said, and she was smart enough to stick to beer while they boys drank their way to the bottom of two bottles. Rhodey was going to regret this in the morning.

Danvers. Did she know the name? She knew everything there was to know about Tony's life now, and almost everything about Tony's life before she'd started working for him, but there were some gaps. Blacked out portions of project reports, months-long vacations, and business trips to nowhere. She sat down at Tony's desk, logged in and ran the name through the system. She wouldn't be able to find anything that Tony didn't want found, but it was worth a look.

Danvers, Carol.

Jarvis came back with nothing, except a few drinks over the years, a few meetings out at the Cape, or at LA AFB. Some notes that she'd been consulted on one government contract or another.

The door slid open, startling her.

"Hey Pepper," Carol said. "Sorry to bother you. I just need to get some water for those two idiots." She nodded out the window to the terrace, where Tony had joined Rhodey on the chaise. They were holding on to each other and laughing.

"Yeah, sure." Pepper logged out surreptitiously and stood up. She pulled two bottles of spring water from the mini fridge and handed them to Carol, who raised an eyebrow.

"Unlabeled? Must be the good stuff." Like Tony, she left before Pepper could respond. Hips swaying almost despite themselves. Despite how hard she walked, not at all like someone from Tony's world. Air Force Barbie. Pepper snickered. She could almost be a Bond Girl, if it wasn't for that grip, and for that hardness.

She could press Tony, or ask Obediah, if she wanted to know that badly, how Tony 'almost got her killed'. Pepper didn't know if it was worth the trouble.

In the meantime, she had a date with her own life, and her condo, which was blissfully free of drunken pilots, CIA agents, or engineering geniuses. She shoved her Blackberry into her bag, along with the sheaf of papers that the Narada deal had managed to produce, and headed out to the car, where Happy was waiting.


End file.
